Word: bp
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...British-listed company. That followed similarly upbeat earnings from ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, although in all three cases company stock barely moved on the day earnings were released; in Shell's case, its announcement also disclosed a further reduction in the firm's proven reserves. Another big oil firm, BP, is scheduled to announce earnings this week...
...oligarch incurred the wrath of the Kremlin because he got too big for his britches - not a concerted attack on the oil sector as a whole. Few top executives will talk about Yukos publicly, and most oil companies won't comment on their Russian investment strategies. But John Browne, BP's chairman, has defended his company's deal. When questioned earlier this year about the possible fallout from Yukos, Browne said: "At present, I would say - and I believe this will continue - that there has been no effect." That ties in with a common theory in Moscow that Khodorkovsky...
...introduced other limitations on the private sector, particularly foreign companies. Under the terms of the Conoco deal, for example, the American company can raise its stake in Lukoil - but only to a ceiling of 20%, less than the 25% it needs to be able to block strategic company decisions. BP, by contrast, whose contract was signed eight months before Khodorkovsky's arrest, has a 50% share in its Russian joint venture. "That's a deal we won't see repeated," says Jonathan Stern of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. "The climate now is for strategic minority investments by foreign...
...experience of BP suggests that Yukos' success with modern production techniques wasn't a fluke. After a year of operations, BP recently gave the first detailed report about its joint venture, called TNK BP. The surprises are all good: it has revised the level of reserves upward, production growth is well above the expected 7% annual increase, and the firm has decided to double its capital spending to make more of the opportunities it is finding. In the Soviet era, BP officials explain, oil wells were developed in a cookie-cutter approach; by tailoring solutions to each reservoir and well...
...BP has also run into the difficulties foreign companies typically face in Russia. The company's first foray into the Russian market, in 1997, ended badly after Sidanco, a firm in which it took a 10% stake, went bankrupt. At the time, oil was near $10 per bbl., the Russian economy was sliding into crisis, and BP found its stake wasn't big enough to influence Sidanco's management. BP also ended up at loggerheads with other Russian shareholders at Sidanco, members of the private Alfa investment group headed by billionaire Mikhail Fridman. But Sidanco got back on its feet...